Bluesman Tommy Castro looks back on his Stompin' Ground with newest record

It may seem as if Tommy Castro had an ironclad plan when it came to recording his newest record, Stompin’ Ground.

But while the veteran bluesman admits a focus did eventually emerge, he says it was mostly through serendipity.

It all began with his desire to pay tribute to some of his earliest influences. While he has traditionally listed what he calls “real-deal” soul and bluesmen such as B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Wilson Pickett and Ray Charles when asked about his major inspiration, Castro’s early gateway to those pioneering artists was through people such as Elvin Bishop, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Taj Mahal.

He also wanted to avoid the high-tech studios he had recorded in for past records, opting instead to work with Norwegian guitar whiz Christoffer (Kid) Andersen, a like-minded blues aficionado whose home studio just happens to be in Castro’s old stompin’ grounds of San Jose. Around the same time, the musician also began writing a song about those roots, which would eventually become the wistful blues ballad My Old Neighbourhood.

Before he knew it, the album seemed to have a bit of a through line.

“Here were the old influences of mine that I never got around to mentioning, like Elvin and Taj,” says Castro, in an interview from his home in San Francisco. “I was going back to my hometown to record and I had a song called My Old Neighbourhood. At that point, I realized there was a theme going on.”

Stompin’ Ground is the third record Castro has recorded with his Painkillers, the tight backup crew that includes bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Mike Emerson and drummer Bowen Brown. The band will play a three-night run starting Thursday at Mikey’s on 12th.

The CD’s cartoon cover art features an illustration of the sort of colourful characters that may have populated Castro’s neighbourhood in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Castro wanted to recreate the sounds he heard in his community, from deep blues to soulful funk to classic soul. The latter was usually being pumped out of lowrider cars by Mexican-Americans. Among the guest musicians who play on Stompin’ Ground is Los Lobos’ guitarist-vocalist David Hildago, who adds his trademark fiery guitar lines and soulful vocals to Castro’s scorching cover of Buddy Miles’ Them Changes.

Granted, Hildalgo grew up in Los Angeles, not San Jose. But Castro said his friend has always reminded him of the “lowriders” of his youth; tough guys who were obsessed with music and keen to let everyone in the neighbourhood know.

“They always had, and this is the main thing about them, loud stereo systems with extra power,” Castro says. “They would load these big stereo systems into the car and they would just boom as they went down the street. They’d play soul music. They’d always be blasting Wilson Pickett, James Brown. A little later on, some of the lowriders would listen to bands like War. As time progressed, it was Santana maybe. It was the sound I would hear every day as I walked to school.”

Not all of the songs are fuelled by nostalgia. Castro said he also wanted to emulate the more socially conscious lyrics that began dominating music he was listening to in the ’60s. That resulted in the blistering blues of Fear is the Enemy and sinister boogie of Enough is Enough, which both seem to reflect the paranoid politics dominating his country at the moment.

But for the most part, Stompin’ Ground seems to be an exercise in showing gratitude to the music that helped form his musical identity. Castro tips his cap to early influence Taj Mahal with a smooth cover of Further On Down the Road and also offers a rollicking take on the Elvin Bishop Band’s Rock Bottom.

It was Bishop and Taj Mahal and Eric Clapton who led Castro to blues originators such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King. The latter had a huge influence on Castro’s guitar style. Nearly 20 years ago, he was able to tell the blues icon in person when he opened shows for him for two summer tours.

“B.B. was the one guy I liked the most,” Castro says. “I went through a phase of listening to lots and lots of B.B. King. I remember my first two B.B. King albums were both live albums. I was going to junior high school at the time and I would come home from school and put the record on and I would sit there with my guitar and I would try and learn how to play B.B. King licks. I did that for months and months. I don’t think I listened to anything else. I was just so blown away by the sound. Me and B.B. King records spent a lot of time together. When we got the call to go on the road with him, I was just thrilled.”

Roughly four years ago, Castro decided he wanted to change his sound and return to concentrating on his guitar playing. For more than a decade he had toured with a band that included horns. Starting with 2014’s fiery, guitar-driven The Devil You Know, Castro rebranded with the Painkillers and adopted the same stripped-down sound he will be bringing to Calgary.

“I just got bored with the same sound after many years, it was a big wall of sound with every song,” he says. “I was ready for something different. I wanted to be more of a guitar player at the time — let the guitar be a bigger part of my sound and push me a little bit to play a little more.”

Tommy Castro and the Painkillers play three nights at Mikey’s on 12th on March 15, 16 and 17. Shows start at nine. Visit mikeyson12th.com.

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